Maj. Charles Seidel, weapons production manager at Eglin AFB, Fla., for the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, says he is now a believer in the Air Force’s new “smart operations” effort. Seidel led a “rapid improvement event” team formed in July to explore refining the AMRAAM acquisition process—and succeeded in cutting a “very sound” acquisition process from 48 weeks to 20 weeks, reports the current Eglin Eagle base newspaper. Seidel says, “Time is money and getting the missiles to the warfighters six months earlier is an immediate plus.”
While the Space Force is still making long-term plans to establish high-fidelity live and virtual test and training ranges in the coming years, officials say they're also working with operators to identify near-term gaps and quickly field capabilities to address them.
